Moisture in dirt is very important for uromastyx especially young. Usually in captivity you do not have to worry about moisture because the captive diet is very high, even too high in moisture for uros. Young without moisture will dehydrate very quickly. Most uromastyx in the wild burrow under rocks or in very rocky soil which holds the moisture in the the ground. The rock kind of creates a barrier not allowing the moisture to evaporate too quickly. Uromastyx burrows in the wild are usually high in humidity compared the the ambient humidity level. It is kind of like the old trick to get water if you are stuck in the desert. Dig a hole, put a container to catch the water in the bottom of the hole, cover the hole with plastic sheeting. The moisture in the ground will condense on the bottom of the plastic and drip into the container and you have drinking water. It is the same in the uros burrows but not quite as efficient. This will also eleviate shedding problems. A trick is you can sink a perforated pvc tub into the dirt with a spout sticking up out of the dirt and add water to it occasionally. This will keep the dirt under the surface moist and will allow the surface to dry out so just the burrow is humid. This would take a lot of experimentation because you do not want the burrow wet as this will cause all kinds of problems.
Hell this all way too complicated! Just use play sand. There has been very successful, on going, long term breeding of most of the uro species available in the US using play sand and plastic hides. Matthew Moyle from Saurus used to breed probably 200-400 uros(acanthinura, ornata and dipar maliensis) a year using small generic cages. It just depends on how complicated you want to get.
Now here I will go off on a tangent and rant. Here is the catch! All you people need to support these guys that are breeding such as: Lindsay Pike, Audrey Vanderlinden, Doug Dix, Bert Langerwerf and I am sure there are plenty others. Other wise they will go the way of Matt Moyle and give it up. Then when these animals are no longer exported from their countries of origin(which most of them are not anymore) they will not be available to us. Sure they are more expensive but well worth it. Do any of you know how much work is involved in properly taking care of a 50-100 lizards? People that go to these guys with problems with their wild caught lizard wonder why they get blown off. Not only did you not support their efforts but these guys simply do not have time to deal with other peoples problems. You would not have a lot of the problems you guys are having if you purchased from these people. Plus you would get support if something did go wrong. I constantly hear of people on this forum and on the Uromastyx list server having problems with wild caught animals purchased in pet stores and on-line then getting no support from where they bought it. I think Robyn from PE just touched on this in a previous post. People especially novices should purchase from these poeple. All of us should support them.
Sorry just my 2 cents. You will probably think to yourself, "Who the hell does this guy think he is? God?". No I don't! I have been guilty of this myself and have learned from experience. I hope we all can learn. That is what this forum is here for right?
Thanks for your time!
Tom Greb
